What Do You Need to Become a Successful Investor

Reported by Simi Afroza Mira

If you’d hired Warren Buffet ten years ago to manage your money, how would your life be different today? Forbes picked “6 Top Money Managers,” five of which outperformed Warren Buffet—and the top mutual fund manager for the past ten years. Each of them presents their top pick for 2015, and there are three lessons we can take away from this.

Here are Forbes’ top picks, their top picks, and their 10 year average:
Kai Petainen – 14% – Acco Brands, Spirit Aerosystems
Nate Pile – 18% – Mannkind
Marcus Eder – 19% – ITT, Mallinckrodt
Tony Mitchell – 28% – Toyota
Jerry Pettit – 16% – Maiden Holdings, BBVA Banco Frances, Alaska Air
Aaron Hillegass – 16% – Vanguard Mid-Gap Value, Vanguard FTSE

No One is a Natural Investor
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. There is not one person that is born a natural investor. Any money manager that you talk to will tell you that it is not possible to make a profit on every single investment made. If you want to be a great investor, you have to be willing to admit when you make a mistake. Don’t go into investing thinking every pick is going to be a winner.

A Great Education Doesn't Make You a Great Investor
While a top education is key, an MBA doesn’t guarantee that anyone will be a great investor. Having a superb MBA is great, but having hands-on experience in the industry is just as valuable. Most of the people on Wall Street begin a career straight out of school and have no experience. Those that have been working, producing, selling, and buying have a much better understanding of investments.

Know Your Expertise
If you are making investments to increase your net worth, then make sure you know the area you are best at investing in. You can gather all the data you want, but if you don’t understand the data it will do you no good. You are not expected to know everything because you can’t, but do know that every decision in investing is 20% a leap of faith? If you are great at picking stocks that involve the medical field, don’t try to start picking stocks in the fruit field.

Just the Average Joe
The take on this whole article should be that it doesn’t matter where you graduated from or how many mistakes you have made; those are what we learn from. What is important is that knowledge and understanding are key elements and you don’t need an MBA from an Ivy League school to manage money.